New Ways to Attack Our PC's

PC World

Cyber criminals are finding new ways to steal information, including infecting legitimate Web sites with Trojans and creating rogue software packages that look legitimate but contain malware, cybersecurity experts warned.


Recent months have seen a rise in sophisticated attacks, also including so-called spear phishing, an e-mail scam targeted at a small group of people, a group of cybersecurity professionals said Tuesday at a TechAmerica cybersecurity forum in Washington, D.C. Spear phishing is a form of the common phishing scam, but instead of a fake e-mail that looks like it comes from a bank or e-commerce site, it instead looks like it comes from someone you know, such as an executive at your company.

Cyber criminals are now focusing on compromising trusted sources of information, by installing Trojans on legitimate Web sites or faking e-mail messages from people known to would-be victims, asking them for personal information, said Eric Cole, cybersecurity senior fellow at Lockheed Martin. In early 2007, two Web sites affiliated with the Miami Dolphins football team were compromised with malicious code, and earlier this year a site affiliated with rock star Paul McCartney contained malicious code.

There are tens of thousands of other legitimate Web sites infected with malware, said Uri Rivner, head of new technologies for consumer identity protection at RSA Security, a cybersecurity vendor. RSA is seeing a recent spike in compromises from the password-stealing Torpig or Sinowal Trojan, around since mid-2007, largely due to infected legitimate sites, he said.

The rule "used to be, 'don't go to the bad part of the Internet,'" Cole said. "'Don't go to those evil parts where bad things are happening.' I don't think most of us ... consider Paul McCartney a bad site."

Microsoft has seen a "tremendous rise" in rogue software being downloaded in the past year, said Vinny Gullotto, general manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center. In many cases, the rogue software is disguised as antivirus software and tricks people into downloading it by telling them they have viruses on their computers, he said.

Web users should only download cybersecurity software from a trusted source, he said.

Cyber criminals are also turning to the help-wanted ads and e-mails to recruit unsuspecting helpers to launder money, Rivner said. These work-at-home schemes offer people lucrative jobs if they supply a bank account to process payments for a company or charity, he said. In reality, the payment processors are serving as middlemen in money-laundering schemes, with the money coming from compromised bank accounts.

One job offer River received by e-mail said he could work three hours a day for US$3,000 a week. The lesson is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, Rivner said.

"Lots of people in this bad economy are applying for these types of ads," he said. "A lot of people answer these ads on a daily basis."

Looking For A Simple Easy Way To Work Or Play On Our Computer.

It is important that every individual, family and business have a computer repair service plan in place to protect themselves from these cyber terrorist.


A slow running computer or a computer that crashes frequently may be a sign of Malware (Trojans, viruses, worms, and other malicious code) on your computer. These hacker tools not only can be used to steal sensitive information from your computer they slow your computer down or even cause computer crashes. Unfortunately, traditional over-the-counter computer protection products don’t keep up with this growing problem. If they did would we continue to have these problems?

Over the last three years there’s been a huge shift from curious hackers to professional hackers creating devious methods to steal proprietary information from computers like yours. This evolving threat is costing individuals and businesses tens of billions of dollars every year. V. McNiven, an advisor to the U.S Department of treasury has stated, “The proceeds from cyber are now greater than the sale of illegal drugs.

These evil hackers continue to find more devious ways of stealing financial and proprietary information. It is important that every individual, family and business have a computer repair service plan in place to protect themselves from these cyber terrorist.

You might be surprised to learn that computers that don’t go online are vulnerable through file sharing from infected flash drives, cds and floppies. These devices, when infected, can install scrambling software or logic bomb software that opens up the possibility of extortion to get your proprietary information back

2007 PC Magazine survey of 42,000 PCs worldwide released last September showed the top speed killers. The problems included

Over 52 percent of the PCs surveyed were clogged up with spyware

· Over 60 percent of the PCs surveyed had un-optimized Internet settings slowing the Internet down and even signaling that spyware and other malware have secretly stolen portions of your bandwidth to run on your PC.

· Surveyed computers also contained an average of twelve serious registry problems per unit that may have been caused by spyware and other malware.

Incredible, many of these computers are supposedly protected by the over-the-counter products that aren’t doing what they promise to do. So how can individuals and small businesses protect against identity theft, fraud and extortion? How can they get their computers back to running like new again?

Here are six crucial steps to protecting your computer and making it fun and productive again:

1. Keep your computers patched. Microsoft has automatic patch updates. Make sure are signed up to receive them.

2. Use professional enterprise grade anti-virus and anti-spyware at the email and web gateways. Install a professional grade by-directional firewall to guard against backdoor threats.

3. Use sender-authentication technologies, such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to make phishing far more difficult since – In theory – phishers will only be able to send their spam from “unapproved” domains.

4. Develop and enforce a password policy. This will make passwords difficult to be guessed. Use a different password for each situation. Make sure these passwords are changed frequently. If you use one password for every web site, for example, and a phisher manages to steal it, all of your online activity is at risk. Sophos, an enterprise grade Internet Security Company, recently conducted a business poll and discovered 41 percent of the respondents were using the same password for all web sites.

5. Keep an eye on the advice from organizations promoting safe computing. Many of their web sites will list the latest threats, and give advice on how to protect your home and business against them.

6. Always report suspicious activity.

Just as important, find a computer repair service that offers “Personal Computer Services.” Your personal computer service should include online repair at no additional cost. The end result: hassle-free computing making being on the computer fun and productive again. With the right computer repair service, using computers at home and at work should be hassle-free allowing you to focus more on your home and business activities.

http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/Rgrabowski

How to tell, what to do if computer is infected (AP)

Yahoo! Tech News


Posted on Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:46PM EDT

Computer-virus infections don't cause your machine to crash anymore.

Nowadays, the criminals behind the infections usually want your computer operating in top form so you don't know something's wrong. That way, they can log your keystrokes and steal any passwords or credit-card numbers you enter at Web sites, or they can link your infected computer with others to send out spam.

Here are some signs your computer is infected, tapped to serve as part of "botnet" armies run by criminals:

• You experience new, prolonged slowdowns. This can be a sign that a malicious program is running in the background.

• You continually get pop-up ads that you can't make go away. This is a sure sign you have "adware," and possibly more, on your machine.

• You're being directed to sites you didn't intend to visit, or your search results are coming back funky. This is another sign that hackers have gotten to your machine.

So what do you do?

• Having anti-virus software here is hugely helpful. For one, it can identify known malicious programs and disable them. If the virus that has infected your machine isn't detected, many anti-virus vendors offer a service in which they can remotely take over your computer and delete the malware for a fee.

• Some anti-virus vendors also offer free, online virus-scanning services.

• You may have to reinstall your operating system if your computer is still experiencing problems. It's a good idea even if you believe you've cleaned up the mess because malware can still be hidden on your machine. You will need to back up your files before you do this.

How do I know what information has been taken?

• It's very hard to tell what's been taken. Not every infection steals your data. Some just serve unwanted ads. Others poison your search result or steer you to Web sites you don't want to see. Others log your every keystroke. The anti-virus vendors have extensive databases about what the known infections do and don't do. Comparing the results from your virus scans to those entries will give you a good idea about what criminals may have snatched up.



http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090315/ap_on_hi_te/tec_inside_a_botnet_checklist

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 is presently making its way through Congress. The bill’s co-sponsor, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), has stated:

“America’s vulnerability to massive cybercrime, global cyber-espionage and cyber-attacks has emerged as one of the most urgent national security problems facing our country today.”

Do you mean the U.S. Government is finally getting serious about cybersecurity?? Truthfully, it's our SHARED responsibility of good cyber-hygiene among ALL computer users, not just industry and government.

Folks, the explosion of cybercrime and identity theft has reached a 5-year high, increasing annually at a rate of 22%!! It's escalating rapidly in our difficult economic times. In 2008 alone, 9.9 MILLION Americans were victims of identity theft. In fact, the Wall Street Journal states: "Information breaches to U.S. companies in 2008 reached a per-incident cost of $6.65 MILLION."

Take note of these scary, but very real statistics:

More than 1 person in 10 knew the person who stole their identity.

Identity thieves are working dramatically faster to exploit their victims.

Information stolen and stored for a year or more was up 50%.

Women are 26% more likely to be victims of identity theft than are men.

Latinos are 47% more apt to become victims of identity theft.

Minors are increasingly targets. The thieves know that it can take years before a child's ID

theft is discovered.

Households with higher incomes -- $75,000 or more -- are now at a higher risk.
But …what do these identity theft stats have to do with cybersecurity? Everything. The common denominator here is easy access to individual and business computers in which hackers [read: cyber criminals] are able to penetrate and hijack computers, jeopardizing proprietary and corrupting computers.

The need to turn the Tsunami tide is CRITICALLY urgent, as both our personal AND our national security hinges on ALL computers (home AND businesses) being secured against the ravages and major headaches of cybercrime....all producing hassles, headaches, and serious problems for the end user, along with being an unsuspecting participant in the raging, stealth war of cybercrime and identity fraud. Yes, folks, we’re in an escalating cyber war….it’s already begun!

I am including in this post a link (below) to a blog article from TechRepublic.com called “Cybersecurity: Is the U.S. Government doing enough?”. This explains exactly WHY cybersecurity is EVERYONE'S responsibility. Especially in these challenging days, what is available as "security" software (like Norton, McAfee, TrendMicro, Kaspersky, Panda, etc.) is merely "entry level" and just isn't capable of meeting -- much less staying on top of -- the increasing challenges of sophisticated cybercriminals and other hackers. (If the off-the-shelf, entry-level software did the job, why would the problems be escalating??)

That's exactly why, in my business as a PC Security and Care and Identity Protection Specialist, access to unlimited service and corporate-grade security is provided to computer owners, enabling them to keep cyber criminals from hijacking personal and business PC’s and stealing proprietary data and committing crimes like identity theft and credit fraud. Truthfully, we’re a hacker’s worst nightmare!

Both individuals and small businesses can now finally keep their PC’s and identities secure and truly free from hassles, headaches, and worry….allowing them to literally and finally gain true peace of mind!

Cybersecurity…Yes, it’s our shared responsibility!



http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=2532&tag=nl.e036#comments

Learn How To hunt down those elusive files

I know to some of you this might sound like something that is basic but I assure you there some things you may not be aware of and some new tricks in this lesson.

As time marches on, hard drives are getting cheaper and their capacities keep expanding into mind boggling sizes. When Windows 3.1 was a fledging OS, a gigabyte of storage was considered astronomical! Expanded hard drive capacities means more file storage space. When your file collection grows--mp3s, images, movies, documents etc.--it becomes harder to quickly isolate a specific file from the crowd.
Windows alleviates this problem by allowing its users to create meaningful folder and file names, giving each folder and file identities of their own. But sometimes this isn't enough. With myriad files scattered all haphazardly across your massive hard drive, hunting down a specific file that you created several months ago seems like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Windows XP provides a simple and easy-to-use solution for this common problem: Windows Search.
Windows Search allows you to search your file system for a specific file or a cluster of files based on common criteria. You can commend Windows Search to hunt down all files that contain a certain phrase or word in their filenames, locate all multimedia content and images, or isolate all your documents. You can customize your search query to be very general, to return as many results as possible, or narrow your query down to specifics. Let's get acquainted with XP's search application.

Search Results: Locate my lost File!

To launch XP or Vista's search application, open up an instance of Windows Explorer; you can do this by opening up "My Computer" or using the shortcut key combo: "Windows Key+E". Once you have Windows Explorer opened, right tap on the hard drive you want to search. If you like to keep your PC simple, you may only have one hard drive, and it should be labeled the "C" drive. Right tap on your "C" drive and select "Search".


When you first load Windows Search, you'll be greeted with several text boxes and one of XP's cute little mascot helpers. My Windows Search is accompanied by the "XP dog". The first search text box asks you to type in a file name. If you know the exact file name of the file you are searching for, type that in and let XP locate it for you.


You don't need to know the exact name for a successful search. As long as you know some word or phrase located inside the file's name, XP will usually find it for you. To only search for files that contain a word of phrase, type in your search query into the "A word or phrase in the file" text box. A good tip to observe when creating file names is to be as descriptive as possible, as you may need to perform a Search on said file sometime in the future, and a descriptive file name definitely helps with the search process.


The "Look in" list box allows you to specify what hard drive you want XP to search. The default is usually your "C" drive.


If you just want to search for files that fall into a specific category--such as music, videos, images, spreadsheets and suchlike--XP allows you to select a special option for such purposes. On the main search menu, hit the "Back" button and XP will ask you "What do you want to search for?" Windows Search records several categories and will only search for files that fall into your selected category. This search feature is an easy way file all of your mp3 or image files in one fell swoop.


The Mystery of Hidden Files


Windows XP employs various methods to save you from shooting yourself in the foot. The deletion of a vital system file could destroy the stability of XP. XP sometimes writes out essential files with a special "hidden" attribute. This "hidden" attribute actually hides the file from view when using Windows Explorer. When you can't see certain files, there's less of a chance of your accidentally deleting or overwriting it.

You can actually attribute the "hidden" setting to any file on your file system. You may want to do this for privacy reasons. To do this, right tap on a file and check the "Hidden" attribute on the bottom of the file's property dialog box. Your file will now be hidden from view. XP also contains an option that will allow you to "see" hidden files.


Turning this option on will display all files with the "Hide" attribute semi-transparently; turning this option off will again hide all files with the attribute set. You can set this option by going into "Tools" and "Folder Options" in Windows Explorer; from here, go to the "View" tab and select "Do not show hidden files and folders".

Google Desktop Search

Google, the company that brought you the amazingly fast search engine, also makes excellent desktop software. Since Google specializes in the searching field, it was only proper for them to create an application that searches your PC's hard drive. Google Desktop has more options than the standard Windows Search, and it's extremely easy to use.


The cool thing about Google Desktop is that your search results are presented to you in the exact same way you receive search results from an online search from Google. If you're searching for image files, Google Desktop will display each search result in a browser window with an appropriate thumbnail image right next to it.


It should be noted that Google Desktop needs to index your computer's hard drive when you first run the application. This indexation process is the key to very quick search results. Google Desktop will go through the index process when your PC is idle.


Google Desktop comes with a whole slew of useful settings and features. It's a lot of fun to play around with, and is a lot more powerful than the built-in search facilities XP makes available. Give Google Desktop a try today! You can find it here: http://desktop.google.com/

http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/Rgrabowski



http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-x

Internet Explorer 7

Don't want to waste time with your PC problems? I can save you money from high cost PC repairs. Give me a call for more information on hassle-free computing and making being on the computer fun and productive again. You'll be able to relax with true peace of mind.

When Mozilla unleashed their flagship web browser, Firefox, computer users rejoiced.

There was finally a web browser to rival Microsoft's omnipresent browser, Internet Explorer. For years IE was considered the only usable browser for surfing the web. Most websites were specifically optimized for IE compatibility, and IE came pre-installed on mostly every PC and with every new release of Windows. It may not have been on the top of anyone's favorite's wish list, but it was convenient, it worked most of the time, and most people didn't think they had much of a choice in the matter of web browsing software.


When you're on top of the world, and your competition is paltry, there's really no reason to invest any money on improvement; this was Microsoft's mentality when it came to improvements and maintenance for their ubiquitous Internet Explorer. Without any real competition to galvanize the IE team into improving their browser, Internet Explorer soon degraded into a breeding ground of exploits and a portal for new viruses to crawl through and infect your PC. Users got fed up.


When the first version of Firefox was released, users soon discovered the joys of having a browser that did the same job as IE, but had improved security, a built-in popup blocker, and the widely popular option of "tabbed" browsing. When Microsoft got wind of Firefox taking away a large chunk of Internet Explorer's user base, the IE team got their backsides in gear and cranked out Internet Explorer 7--a huge improvement from IE's predecessors.


A Tour of Internet Explorer 7

Installing IE 7 is a relatively painless process, and you shouldn't run into any problems. One of the first things you'll realize after installing IE 7 is that Microsoft finally introduced the cool feature of "tabbed browsing". Tabbed browsing is a method if viewing multiple web pages inside of a single web browser window. Instead of having multiple web browsers opened to different web pages, overflowing your Windows taskbar with browser buttons, you can have just one browser window opened, but you're not limited to just one web page at a time. This popular web browsing feature was too important for the IE team to leave out of the 7th incarnation of Internet Explorer.


Opening a new browser tab is a cakewalk. Simply go to the "File" menu and select "New Tab", or if you're into hotkey shortcuts, do a "Ctrl+T" to launch a new tab. One annoying thing I noticed after installing IE 7 is that the menu bar is hidden by default; this is probably to save space. To make your menu bar visible, right tap anywhere below the URL text box and select "Classic Menu". Open as many tabs as you want. The freedom is refreshing!


Like Firefox, IE 7 now comes with a Google search bar right out of the box. There's no need to install a 3rd party toolbar to get the search box. Simply type in a search query, and hit enter and IE 7 will send off your query to Google to mull over for several seconds. It's a convenient way of doing a quick search without surfing on over to Google's main home page.


Quick Tabs: Viewing all your Tabs at once


IE 7 comes equipped with a really neat feature called "Quick Tabs". This viewing mode allows you to view all of your tabs at once. IE 7 makes this possible by shrinking down all of your tabs into a kind of thumbnail view and displays them all inside the browser's window. This view mode allows you to get a quick view of all your opened tabs and makes switching to your desired tab quick and easy.


Give "Quick Tabs" a try. Open up a few web pages in several different tabs and go to "View" and select "Quick Tabs". IE 7 will display all your tabs in thumbnail view. It's a really cool browsing feature that alleviates the problem of not knowing what tab points to what web page because of "tab overload".


Internet Explorer 7 comes equipped with enhanced security improvements, the ability to do tabbed browsing, and some other nice features that finally made it into Microsoft's aging web browser. The introduction of Firefox was the impetus that sparked the creation of Internet Explorer 7--the best incarnation of IE to date.


Before you start using Explorer 7 make sure you have all the critical updates on your system before you install IE 7. There are some dlls needed for IE 7 to work correctly and not slow down your system.


If for some reason you do not like IE7 and you want to uninstall it. Just go to the add/remove program in the control panel and uninstall Explorer 7. You will be taken back to Explorer 6 like before.

 http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-x

http://www.myinvisusdirect.com/Rgrabowski

Don't  waste time with your PC problems? Save your money from high cost PC repairs.  Call  me for more information on hassle-free computing and making being on the computer fun and productive again. You'll be able to relax with true peace of mind.